A Breakdown (Episode)
A Breakdown (壊す, Kowasu) is the ninth episode of Mobile Suit Stardust Gundam. Summary 0077-SC: Colony Wagner is in the mists of a rebellion, as most of the inhabitants fight against those from the Arian Homeland. Scattered among the front line fighters are just kids, having been forced into this position so they can protect those incapable of fighting. One of them is a 14-year old teen as he goes ahead of the formation keeps Arian soldiers from going any further. Once the threat retreats, everyone comes back to their bunker as they rest up for if they attack again. The self-made commander of the place yells at the teen for doing something stupid back out there. As punishment, he'll be put at guard duty directly at the entrance. As he does this, his parents, both living in the bunker with the rest of this group, stop by and give him his share of the food. He thanks them as they go away. As he eats, he suddenly hears a hissing sound from behind the reinforced door. It gets blown off the hinges as Arian soldiers run into the bunker. To keep himself safe and unnoticed, he sits against the wall as the smoke acts as his hiding place. Several gunshots can be heard until abruptly stopping. As fast as the situation happened, the soldiers storm out of the place. The teen steps into the bunker, finding most of the inhabitants dead, besides for those who were in cover during the gunfight. He finds his parents, dead right in front of him as they pour out gallons of blood. He breaks down as he gets on his knees right in front of them as he screams hatred towards the Arians. 0087-SC: after the opening, it starts with Anima, with Deva Kars, and rolling out several trays of food, as she says it's lunch time. When she gets to Sigro, she finds him drifting off on his bed. Unlike all the other times Anima has tried to interact with him, he finally reacts: he talks about not being able to sleep since the attack on Colony Ark, with all the battles he's seen playing back over and over again in his head. He then tells her to leave, with her reluctantly doing so as she goes away. On the bridge of the EUS-0098 Grissomm, they've been sending and receiving signals from the Earth Union base nearby. One of these signals state that the Grissomm crew is to detour to the north in order to participate in an operation taking place in a month. The message also says that this is an order directly from Earth Union HQ, and the General of the Military will be there to take command. Doralus decides to announce that they'll be moving out to the north once all necessary repairs are done on the Grissomm. He decides to go down medical bay, saying that he's got a headache. Before he leaves, he has operator Wallace Vance order Sigro to patrol around the area. He does so, but he's told by him that he's tired of all the fighting. Wallace gets embarrassed and stops the call to his room, deciding to sit on that for now. Takumi comes into the bridge and asks if he could go out, but before he can say where he's going, Wallace says yes and tells him to suit up and head out to patrol the area in the MHM2A-13581 Hawkmey Fighter. Takumi just goes along with it as he stiffly heads to the launch bay. Nearby, the ABS-EF1001 Vulture-class is flying, while carrying Darius Ceylon and John Ars Arias, and John discusses his plan with him. He tells him that they've narrowed down where they think the Grissomm is and are deciding to lure them out with a precise attack. In order to make sure that it goes well, John will be going out while Darius assists him from the Vulture. Darius tries to convince him not to go out, but John shrugs his comments off, saying he has to set an example like the rest of his family has. John also thinks that Darius couldn't understand because he has no family ties, which peeves him a bit. Darius decides to change his mind, letting John go out in a custom AFP-1002 Tester jet. Meanwhile, he stands in John's quarters, insulting the man while he isn't there before kicking a bit of the wall, afterwards he walks out. John sits in his custom Tester when he receives reports about the mobile armor from a few days ago being seen, making him more determined as he wants to take it down. Likewise, Takumi sees the Vulture coming near the ruined city, but because they didn't load the Hawkmey with ammo when he launched, he can't try to take it down himself. Before John can go out, he gets stopped by (who's calling from the bridge), saying to him that it seems that the Grissomm is at a disadvantage and following the mobile armor may lead to finding the gray ship itself. John decides to run with that plan as he waits in the bay, the Vulture following the Hawkmey. Takumi realizes what's going on and calls the Grissomm, which makes Doralus changes the ship's status to level one combat status. He orders to the launch of the MLRMA-13582 Reprisal Fighter to support the Hawkmey when it comes back. He also orders that Sigro to launch out, having already been told about his talk with operator Wallance. Sigro says to Doralus that he won't go out until Doralus can promise him that he can rest for the rest of this trip. His remarks almost make Doralus snap at him, but Mirai Akkah holds him back. Meanwhile, Kara Fumiko is surprised that she's finally going to have the chance to launch as she's told about the order by Anima. She runs to the launch bay, forgetting to put on a pilot suit, as she enters the Reprisal and launches out, passing the Hawkmey as it lands inside. The engineers and mechanics quickly stock the Hawkmey up with ammo as the Reprisal heads directly towards the Vulture. Anima goes to see Sigro, in order to convince him to launch out, but Doralus also comes and shoves himself into the room. He demands to know what Sigro is thinking when he ignores everyone's pleas for his help. Sigro just tries to ignore him as well, but Doralus just grabs him and slams him against the wall, as he tells him to man up and take the situation in stride. He throws him down while saying that he's too spoiled for his own good. As he walks out, he holds his head as another headache starts, and he sudden runs into Armen Plavska. He asks if she has some medicine for his head pains and she runs off to the medical bay, him telling her that he'll be on the bridge. Sigro walks out, looking on while looking down. Anima asks him something that gets to him: how did you get here in the first place? He looks to Anima and says to her that he's sorry for the past weeks, while he runs to the launch bay. Meanwhile, John and Darius notice that the MC2MS-13579 Stardust Gundam hasn't been launched yet, so they decide to launch out an all-out attack against the area to force the Grissomm out. As the battle progresses, Darius decides to stop his call in order to have John more focused on the battle, which he agrees with. As the call stops, Darius commentates on the battle and John's grace in the sky to the pilots and operators on board the bridge of the Vulture. Meanwhile, he sabotages the wiring for the communications system, making it impossible for John to contact the ship. Meanwhile, Sigro finally launches out in the Stardust and manages to take out each fighter jet with pin-point accuracy, except for John's jet (which only loses the tail). John calls the Vulture to rescue him, but because of what Darius did, nothing happens, forcing John to go back to the ship. Sigro tries to follows, but Doralus calls him, telling him to come back. A little while later, Doralus meets with him and asks him if Sigro's senses have come back to him. He says yes and that he's sorry for his behavior ever since they reached Earth. Doralus is less pissed with him while he takes a few pills, as he sees Takumi go back out in the small car, and wonders where he's going most of the time. Meanwhile, back on the Vulture, John finds the sabotage, but it seems that Darius fixed it up and faked it so it looked like it was an error on the system's fault. Darius calms him down and says that even if his plan worked, it would've hurt John's pride a bit. He decides to go along with it as he walks to his quarters. Back on the Grissomm, Sigro rests in his bed, the first good sleep he's had in so long. Trivia